They Clipped Her Wings
by electric gurrl
Summary: It is not a pretty love story, but it is a love story all the same. That of a Water Tribe boy, a Fire Nation girl, and a favor returned. — Sokka x Ty Lee. O/S.


A/N: **Warnings **for a severely abusive relationship (not the Ty Lokka), and mentioned/mild femslash.

* * *

**They Clipped Her Wings**

* * *

_But a bird that stalks  
down his narrow cage  
can seldom see through  
his bars of rage  
his wings are clipped and  
his feet are tied  
so he opens his throat to sing.  
"Caged Bird" - Maya Angelou_

* * *

"Is she... alive?" is what Ty Lee awakens to. The voice is female and incredibly familiar, although Ty Lee is well aware it is not Azula or Mai's.

And then she notices the blinding sun through her half-closed eyes. Her head hurts, her whole body hurts, in fact. Last she remembers, it was the dead of the night, the pale moon over the blue land in the middle of the cold Earth Kingdom.

"Katara, you have to heal her," says the Avatar, _that _voice Ty Lee recognizes. "We can't just leave her."

"She almost killed me, Aang," snaps the same female voice and Ty Lee opens her eyes, gasping for breath. All four members of Team Avatar jump in terror as she bursts to life, previously looking like a bloody corpse.

"This is a trap. This is definitely a trap," says the cute boy, pointing a boomerang at her as if it will do any damage. Or at least, any _more _damage. "They left her here to trick us."

"Let her talk," Aang insists viciously and Katara sighs and kneels beside Ty Lee, who is still looking shocked and confused.

Katara lifts water from her pouch and tries to locate the worst of the wounds.

"I'm going to keep you _alive_. That's the only promise," Katara whispers and Ty Lee blinks in response, clearly understanding but still not speaking.

_"I know what you're thinking," whispers a voice in her ear, "what a sadistic girl... but believe me, love, this is me at my most masochistic."_

_Darkness. The scent of blood on the early spring wind._

"It's not a trap," Ty Lee breathes, the first words she manages. Her vision starts to clear and she looks around at the Avatar and his friends. They are all quite bewildered, even the usually stoic blind girl.

"That's exactly what you would say if it was a trap," growls the hot one. "That crazy Fire Princess bangs you up a bit and leaves you here like bait."

Ty Lee's lip starts to tremble and she bursts into hysterical tears. The Avatar's jaw juts out, looking defensive as his friends share exasperated glances. It reminds her of Mai and Azula for a moment and then she can only cry harder, her sobs hurting.

"Please stop crying. Your ribs are broken," the Water Girl says, and Ty Lee is unsure why she is being remotely kind. "You're going to make it worse."

Aang rubs his lips with his fingers for a moment before making a decision that he hopes his friends will listen to. "We have to help her and all of you know that. If we leave her here to die, we're just as bad as they are. Katara...?"

Katara blinks once. It is true, she has refused time and time again to turn her back on people who need her. Sokka grits his teeth, knowing he must accept this, knowing as an honorable man, leaving a broken woman in the woods to be eaten by saber toothed moose lions is _wrong_. Not that she and her friends would know right from wrong if it bit them.

They blindfold Ty Lee and lead her to their camp, where they have been hiding since their altercation with Azula in the deserted town. Sokka carries Ty Lee over his shoulders, because despite her light weight, he is the only one strong enough to do it safely.

Ty Lee's blindfold is removed, and she opens her eyes to see cobalt, fierce, fierce cobalt looking back at her. He is even more attractive for some reason, or perhaps she is just dizzy from pain and blood loss.

"Katara, get her into good enough shape that Toph can question her," is what Sokka says as Ty Lee stares at him, looking confused as to where she is.

Katara heals Ty Lee through a clenched jaw. She does not like this one bit, but she knows that she could not live with herself if she left Ty Lee to die.

"Thank you," Ty Lee whispers with such genuineness that Katara does not know what to say.

"Let me see any other bad scrapes, okay?" Katara offers, warmed slightly by Ty Lee thanking her. Katara examines Ty Lee further and sees nail marks. Too many nail marks. Deep ones. Her memory flickers to the glint of sun on long, sharp fingernails. "Azula did this to you."

Ty Lee nods, looking pained by the memory. You do not need to have Toph's lie detecting skills to tell that the memory genuinely hurts.

"How is she?" Aang asks as Katara wraps a blanket around Ty Lee and leans her against a surprisingly willing Appa.

"Hurt. I healed the burns and the scratches and did what I could with her ribs. But... emotionally... I don't know." Katara rubs her neck and Aang looks up at Ty Lee for a moment before looking away.

Sokka walks to her before Katara and Aang can stop him, and the Avatar and waterbender exchange an exasperated glance. Toph sits down and starts eating berries, as if none of this is happening.

"This better not be a trap," he growls and Ty Lee just looks at him. He examines her for a moment and notices something _hollow _about the eyes that previously sparkled as she attacked him.

She just looks at him, and then looks away.

[X]

That night, the entire group is tense as they wonder if Ty Lee _was _bait from the other two girls. She still has yet to speak, even though Aang has been trying his best. Katara managed to heal her ribs the rest of the way, and she no longer is in the excruciating pain she was left in before.

"I can't tell if she's lying if she won't talk," Toph snaps, rubbing her hands together in the heat of the fire. Ty Lee watches it, blinking when she starts seeing the clearly yellow flames as cerulean.

Sokka pauses, rubbing his chin. He stands up and sits down beside her on the outskirts of the camp, her body still leaning against Appa's soft warmth.

"Hey," he says and she looks up. "Are you okay?"

Ty Lee pauses. If there is anyone she wants to talk to, she supposes it is the Water Tribe boy. She has been thinking about him a good deal since they last fought.

"She... just left me..." and then Ty Lee bursts into tears and Sokka does not know what he is supposed to do. "She... hurt me... and left me to die. I trusted her."

Sokka immediately does not know what to do. He rubs his neck as she continues crying, and looks to Katara for help.

Aang watches Ty Lee that night, and Sokka tosses and turns, haunted by the look in her eyes.

[X]

Sokka is freed from the clutches of the earth, Aang is a bender, and the rest of the group is lounging around as the two of them practice. Ty Lee is gradually healing, and Toph interrogated her, deeming her honest, although she went into few details about her attack.

She is sitting alone by the water as Katara feeds Appa and Momo. Sokka walks to her and sits down, summoning his courage.

"What do you know about the Fire Nation? Do you have any maps?" is how Sokka introduces himself and he groans internally. Not the best pick up line yet.

Ty Lee shrugs and continues dipping her toes in and out of the cold water. "I'm probably not very helpful. You should just return me to Azula."

"If we knew where she was, we would," Sokka says harshly, bristling. Ty Lee watches him get angry and pouts for a moment.

"So, do you have a girlfriend?" she asks with an innocent bat of her wide eyes.

"Kind of?" Sokka does not know how to answer that question. "Uh, my first girlfriend turned into the moon, and I, sort of kissed a girl, I think, but she's fighting in the war and I haven't seen her in a long time."

Ty Lee giggles and he finds he likes the sound, to his surprise. "So, you're single, I guess? You need to think of a way to shorten that explanation."

Sokka examines her for a moment before brushing back his hair, taking care to flex his muscles. Ty Lee sees the trick he is pulling, but he lets him think he is being clever. He _does _have an impressive body.

"Are you single?" Sokka asks, realizing this is his most successful attempt at flirtation in his life so far. And with a _Fire Nation _monster.

Ty Lee frowns for a moment. "I'm not really sure. Maybe."

He looks at his hands and tries not to invade her statement. But he does find that he wants to know. No man would find her _unattractive_, regardless of her being an evil Fire Nation person. And she seems surprisingly into him.

"What happened to you?" Sokka asks, trying to keep his tone tender. Gentle conversation is not always his area of expertise.

Ty Lee studies the water and furrows her brow. She struggles with the words. Aang asked, Katara asked, Toph did not. Now Sokka does, and, for some reason, she wants to tell him.

"Azula happened to me." The coldness in her tone stuns Sokka yet again. "She... I don't know why! I don't know how she could just..."

Sokka wants to spit something about the Fire Nation and its cruelty, but he manages to hold his tongue. Ty Lee could be invaluable when his largest concern is information about the Fire Nation so that Aang can somehow defeat the Fire Lord before the end of summer.

Having a Fire Nation girl on their side could be immensely helpful.

"If you need anything," Sokka says, "just ask."

Ty Lee does not take it as kindness. She knows they only want her for information, but she thanks him anyway.

She does not need any more enemies now that Azula has betrayed her.

[X]

They fall for each other slowly, bit by bit, moment by moment, piece by piece.

Maybe it is the way she curls her lip and squints when she tries to concentrate, or the way he never gives up even when he really, really should. It genuinely happens when Ty Lee teaches Sokka how to build a new kind of weapon to catch fish.

"I'm not huge on Fire Nation weaponry," Sokka admits as she holds out her hand for his only fishing line. But with a sigh, he gives it to the newest member of their team.

She has a bow they recovered from a burned down camp that was vacated by Earth Kingdom soldiers. And with a few odds and ends, she is crafting the handful of arrows into a more projectile style of his usual spearfishing.

Sokka examines it and is impressed. "I didn't see you as the inventing type."

Ty Lee shrugs. "My grandfather was a really famous soldier. He taught me a lot of useless junk." She grins and Sokka narrows his eyes at her.

"Why are you so happy all the time? It's... kinda creepy," Sokka says, stretching the bow and starting to appreciate the control it has when he plans to fish.

"Life's too short to be anything but happy. I just try to fly like a little flutter bat, over all my troubles," Ty Lee says carelessly, making cute little flapping motions with her arms.

Sokka begs to differ, but he does not mind her at all. Aang's positivity makes him want to smash his face into rock walls, but he has a liking for hers. And maybe not just because she is hot.

"But people don't take you seriously when you're, uh, bubbly. It's always the geniuses who are cynical," Sokka admits, stepping into the water and scanning for fish with trained Water Tribe eyes.

"Nobody is ever going to take me seriously. I've realized that by now," Ty Lee says, watching him walk out into the water. "It's always kinda hard with Mai and Azula. I've never fit in so good with them. They're both smart and... just different. Sometimes I just want to fly... but I feel like they stole my wings."

Sokka did not expect something so poetic from a girl who speaks mostly in giggles. He thinks about it for a moment, her _wings_.

And then Sokka pauses. He wants to just stab some fish, but she strikes a particularly soft nerve.

"I know how you feel. That's pretty much my life with Katara and Aang and, now, Toph," Sokka says as he pulls back on the bow and stops short of releasing. "I like you being around. There's someone they take less seriously than me."

Ty Lee giggles instead of getting mad. "Well, it's hard to take such hot people seriously. They're just dazzled by our good looks."

Sokka cocks an eyebrow. "You like this." He flexes his arm and she rolls her eyes.

"Mmmmaybe." She walks out into the water, feeling it cold against her heated bare feet.

And before he can protest, she presses her coral pink lips against his. It feels right.

But then she tastes the smoke and roses of Azula's lips and pulls away in fright.

Sokka gently pulls her back, and Ty Lee forgets Azula, because she would have dug her nails in and forced Ty Lee against her. Their lips meet again and the water laps against their ankles as their lips crush together again and again.

She sinks into his arms.

[X]

Ty Lee wakes up screaming when the tent is cleaved in half by a burst of blue. She thinks it must be a nightmare, it _has _to be a nightmare, but Sokka grabs her shoulder and pulls her to his feet, lunging towards the source of the flame.

Katara leaps up as the rest of the tent is ripped to shred by projectile knives. Toph knocks up a wall of rock around them, but it leaves them blind to where the enemy is coming from.

"Give us Ty Lee and we'll let you go," snarls a voice that gives Sokka chills.

"What? Azula," snaps the gloomy one. "We can't just let them go."

"She's worth more," Azula snaps and the rock wall bursts into shards. Ty Lee dodges them, shoving Sokka to the side as Aang blows them away from himself and Katara with his staff and Toph shatters those that she can feel.

"Ty Lee is not worth more than the Avatar," Mai mutters under her breath as they assault the group.

By the time the fight is over, Ty Lee is gone, and the princess and the other girl are long gone. Aang, Katara and Toph are not pleased with the idea of sharing these woods with them.

"She's gone," Sokka murmurs, glancing up for a moment at the moon. It is full, round, and bright white. "I mean, now we have no information on the Fire Nation at all. What are we supposed to do?"

Katara rubs his arm, understanding he is not talking about the potential information trove of Ty Lee.

He brushes her aside and reclaims his weapons from the grass.

[X]

Sokka tastes bitter metal and dirt when he wakes in a prison cell. He tries to remember what happened, but it is fuzzy. Rocks. Chasing Azula. The Dai Li. _The Invasion_. Panic. Fire Nation flag on the opposite wall, which he can see through thick metal bars of a prison.

Sudden images of being tortured for information. Sudden images of _Suki _being tortured for information, after Azula's little quip.

The door opens and Sokka's gut clenches as he prepares himself for battle with a jailer or extortionist. But it is... Ty Lee. _Ty Lee_, who he lost, and who never tried to come back after everything he, Katara, Aang and Toph did for her when they found her dying in the woods.

"Hi," Ty Lee says warmly, sitting down across from Sokka. "I brought you some water."

He does not respond and she frowns for a flicker of a second. She forces the glass of clean water into his hands and he begrudgingly drinks it.

Ty Lee clears her throat and continues, "You saved me in more ways than one. I want to return the favor. Somehow, maybe. I don't know."

Sokka looks up. His big blue eyes fixate on her protuberant dark eyes for a few moments, and he can see that she is completely serious. He took her as betraying him for Azula, but maybe there is more to that. More to both of them than the joke of their groups.

"You don't have to. Something from how we found you in those woods make me think your girlfriend isn't going to be so forgiving," Sokka says and Ty Lee swallows.

"I don't care," Ty Lee says with a seriousness in her girlish tone that he does not expect. She gets up, although it pains her body to be doing this, although she knows what she will suffer if this happens, and picks up the key to the cells.

She twists the lock, and sets him free to find his friends.

Sokka is halfway to the door before he turns around. "Thank you."

"Just returning a favor," Ty Lee says softly. "But, uh, how about another kiss?"

He smirks, and sidles to her, both of them deciding to forget they are in a prison, or that Ty Lee will surely be punished for her treason. Their lips nearly touch before he interrupts with, "You could come with me. Aang and Katara and Toph and everybody would be alright with it. We could use some of your, uh, punching."

Ty Lee hesitates and pulls away, not allowing him to follow through on the kiss.

"I'll see you sometime." She does not turn back to him, and he pauses, frozen in place. "Would you just go before someone catches you?"

Sokka hesitates, rubbing his chin. Every fiber in his body wants to take this girl with him, but then he hears the footsteps of the guards. At that, he runs, regretting his every step but knowing that he needs to leave if he is going to help his friends defeat Ozai. Despite the Invasion... despite the failure.

She has no regrets. Not for a heartbeat.

[X]

Azula is as livid as is predictable. She clings to the posts of a dark metal chair, digging into it, trying to control her breath. Hesitantly, dragging her bare feet across the floor, Ty Lee wraps her arm around the princess and tries to console her.

_Ty Lee lied. Ty Lee lied and Azula believed her. Azula who might as well be able to read minds. She told her that his friends came to rescue him, and Azula had no doubts about it, given that his friends included the _Avatar_, whom Azula does not underestimate like many do._

"My father is going to kill me..." Azula murmurs, sinking into the chair she has been clinging to. Ty Lee kneels in front of her and touches her hands, finally taking them in hers.

"Don't worry about your father. _You _won this battle. _You _found out about the Invasion in the first place. He is nothing, and you are everything," Ty Lee whispers, but Azula is staring right over her head at the mirror on the opposite wall.

_To Azula, she is nothing._

"I don't even know why I try," Azula murmurs before inhaling sharply. "No, no. It will all be fine. I am Princess Azula the Conqueror and I will... I will prevail."

Ty Lee blinks hopefully. Hopefully this means things are going up. Or good. Or something. She is not sure what.

Azula lies beside Ty Lee that night and Ty Lee notices the scars on her back. They are from fire. She traces them with her fingers.

"Why did he do this to you?" Ty Lee asks softly, knowing she will likely not get a response.

"I told my father the Avatar was dead. Zuko left. Maybe he just felt like it," is Azula's bitter reply, half muffled by her plush red pillow.

Ty Lee rests her head on Azula's back, on the scars. Maybe this is why she stays. Maybe not. She does not know. The marks are from whips of flame and they burn down her back, and when Ty Lee looks at them in the distorted shadows of Azula's bedroom, they look like marks left from burned off wings.

She dreams of someone she should not. And it makes her feel slightly sick.

When she wakes up in the morning, she feels hollow and used. It is a feeling Ty Lee is becoming progressively more used to. Azula changes and distorts.

How far can loyalty go when the one you follow has completely lost herself? And how long can you stay when you are in so much pain?

Ty Lee regrets... Ty Lee never had regrets before. Not about joining the circus or... anything. She lived in bliss. But she regrets more and more not joining the Avatar when his friends offered. To be a free bird. To be a free bird.

She wraps herself in Azula's blankets and tries to go back to sleep, to dream again.

To dream of him again, like some kind of fool.

[X]

After the war, after it's over, Ty Lee cries. Not because she is sad or hurt that it ended... but because she is glad that it is over. But then she realizes, as she is escorted out of the Boiling Rock, that it will never be over. It will _never _be over.

The Kyoshi Warrior girl greets her friends, who are holding onto Ty Lee. Suki hugs Ty Lee with them and whispers, "Thank you for saving us," before pulling away. Ty Lee feels knots of guilt in her stomach, knowing very well that she is Sokka's girlfriend.

After Zuko's coronation, Ty Lee faces Sokka for the first time since she returned the favor. He glances around, making sure no one is looking, which makes Ty Lee almost just want to slap him and run off with her new best friends, but he walks up to her.

"I never did give you that second kiss, did I?" His voice is slightly deeper. Or maybe that is just relief in his tone. She does not know.

"I'm not sure it would be alright with Suki," is Ty Lee's response and Sokka shrugs.

"It was just a suggestion." He looks embarrassed for a moment and so Ty Lee leans forward on her toes and kisses his lips gently before quickly pulling away. A flush on his dark cheeks and she smirks before prancing away.

Sokka shakes his head, confused.

[X]

Their feelings for each other are kept repressed and secret as Ty Lee lives on Kyoshi Island. Even after Sokka and Suki break up for the thousandth time over some stupid thing Sokka does, Ty Lee keeps it secret, because she knows it would hurt her best friend.

Even if Ty Lee misses her old best friends more than anything.

Ty Lee finds Sokka, dejected, staring at his feet on the docks. "Hey."

"Hey," he replies with a slight groan of frustration.

"Did you two break up again?" Ty Lee asks, sitting down beside him and dipping her toes into the water. She always liked water more than fire... she always did.

"Yes." Sokka rubs his face. "Why am I so stupid? Ugh."

Ty Lee purses her lips, a sudden flicker of anger in her eyes. "She has _no idea_ how lucky she is. Suki is my best friend, but she doesn't know how few guys or girls there are like you."

"I'm really not all that much," Sokka admits with a shrug. Pause. "If she came back or showed up... would you go back to her?"

It takes a moment for Ty Lee to realize he is talking about Azula.

"No," Ty Lee replies honestly, and this time, she kisses him for real. "I guess we're both pretty free birds now. I've stretched my wings. And now you're, uh, a single bird."

She just kisses him again, her feet in the water, her soft lips against his rough ones, just like that first day. That first day where they acknowledged how similar they may be, despite their vastly different worlds.

Sokka slides his hand behind his back, and they remain that way for some time.

Ty Lee thinks she can find happiness with this man. And to think she used to flirt with him just to watch Azula's jealous expression.

[X]

Years after his relationship with Ty Lee began and shortly after it ended, Sokka goes to the Fire Nation for a summit with Katara, Toph and Aang. It has been a handful of years, and he is startled to see Ty Lee there, void of Kyoshi Warrior make-up, dressed in the traditional clothes of the Fire Nation. Her underwear remained pink for her time in the Earth Kingdom, but he has not seen her garbed in red in a long time.

Those nights ended eventually, and Sokka was unsure why. Ty Lee disappeared, just up and vanished, and seeing her sitting beside Zuko, reading much more slowly than him as they went over the plans Zuko and Katara made for the talks.

"Hey," Sokka works up the courage to say.

Ty Lee looks up at him and blinks. She feels like she is going to vomit, but she keeps it down.

"Hey." She smiles warmly, then gathers her papers and disappears into the hallway.

Sokka contemplates following her, but Zuko drags him into conversation. None of them know. None of them will ever know the story about the little caged bird and the free bird, and how they had more in common than they thought.

And then she is gone.

[X]

Sokka heads back to the palace, a little buzzed from the night out drinking after the headache-inducing deliberations. Katara is clinging to Aang, grinning. Zuko and Sokka laugh together, mostly about the girl Zuko tried and failed to pick up, despite being the ruler of a country.

It is then that he sees a sight that scares him, although he will not allow himself to show it. It is Ty Lee, who disappeared, curled up with someone else who vanished, on a sofa. And Ty Lee is stroking her hair, and twisting it in her fingers.

"What are you doing?" Sokka shouts and Zuko grabs his arm with a force Sokka does not understand.

"Don't _shout _at her," Zuko snarls and Azula shifts, revealing more of herself as she examines the man who looks like he would slice her in half with his sword if he did not know she was more powerful than him.

"If you hurt her one more time...!" Sokka is shouting as Azula has wide eyes and silent lips, not moving with the smirk he remembers. Zuko is clinging to him. _Defending _Azula.

Sokka knew, he knows that he knew that she has been back for some time. That she is worse than before, much worse. Sokka cannot forgive her, even if she is so _fragile_. She may be insane but she is not _harmless_. Ty Lee's hollow eyes as she caresses the princess are a testament to that.

"I'm not hurting anyone, peasant," Azula purrs, and her voice is certainly not that of the fragile little teacup Zuko seems to think she is. "And I have never hurt her."

"It's okay, Sokka. Let's go outside," Ty Lee says, trying to break the tension in the room that will lead to someone getting into a fight. She slips away from Azula's warm body and grabs Sokka's arm, pulling him towards a small balcony.

"What happened? What happened to...?" Sokka does not even know what to say. He wants to be strong and brave and not so _angry_. It is Ty Lee's choice.

"She needs me. If it were another way..." Ty Lee murmurs, clenching and unclenching her fists on the rough stone of the guardrail. "I need to take care of her now. She... wouldn't cooperate unless I was there. I was the only one she would even talk to. Sokka, you don't need me at all. But... I will always love you."

To Sokka, it sounds exactly like words he has heard before. His eyes flicker towards the crescent moon over the blue shadows of Caldera. He supposes he is cursed.

"That's not enough." Silence. Ty Lee looks angry for a moment.

And then she kisses him, which is as confusing as things always are with this girl. Sokka pulls away, breathless, and Ty Lee blinks back tears and returns to Azula, not bothering to go further into this conversation.

He lingers on the balcony for a while, looking up at the moon for a long time.

Sokka is interrupted by who he hoped was Ty Lee coming back, but it is Katara.

"What's wrong? You've been staring up there for a long time. You only do that when you're upset," Katara says and Sokka sighs forcefully. "Ugh. Don't try to be so tough. I saw how angry you got when you saw Azula with Ty Lee."

And Sokka gives Katara a response she does not quite understand, "They clipped her wings, Katara. They clipped her wings."

[X]

Sokka returns to the Fire Nation for Mai and Zuko's wedding. It is an amazing affair, and Sokka lost out to Aang for best man. But he supposes an Avatar best man is a little more impressive, or so Zuko and Aang joked.

He looks out into the crowd and sees her. She looks beautiful, radiant, as pretty as ever. Her arm is wrapped around Azula, who is reclining in the simple chair as if it is a throne. It makes Sokka slightly sick, so he stares at the paper with the order of events until the characters no longer make sense.

"Want to dance?" Ty Lee asks as Sokka is in the middle of the reception. He smiles faintly.

"Obviously," he responds casually before taking her in his arms. He tries not to think too hard about how right his hand feels on the small of her back, or how she is grinning wickedly as he spins her around the crowded dance floor.

They spin around, tripping like idiots and laughing. He remembers why he likes her so much. They break apart and she promises another dance before the night is over, and then she is off with Mai gushing about her marriage, while Mai's expression remains completely, eerily blank.

As the party is clearing, Sokka walks towards the hallway when he hears sobbing. He bites on his lip as he investigates, not wanting to get involved into some couple's business, until he sees exactly what couple that is.

"You're dancing with that fucking peasant."

Azula.

"It was a _dance_. Agni, Azula, stop being so jealous. Of course I want to be with you. If I didn't want to be with you I _wouldn't _be. I quit the Kyoshi Warriors, I broke up with him─"

"So you wish you hadn't broken up with him? I don't want your pity. Oh, you gave up your life to take care of the poor, broken, insane princess," Azula sneers and Sokka prepares to intervene.

"You're not that," Ty Lee whispers, though she thinks she is going to lose this fight. And then something comes over her, the desire to fly, the desire to feel her wings. "I _do _still love him, Azula! I do!"

Sokka's eyes flash wide. And he barely intervenes when the princess presses Ty Lee against the wall with a thud that is unheard over the loud live music playing sappy love songs. He grabs Azula's waist and throws her, dodging at the memory of being hit by a spark of lightning.

"You shouldn't have done that," Ty Lee sighs as Azula storms away, not bothering to punish the peasant for interfering.

Sokka's lips open and close in surprise. He saved her from being beaten by her girlfriend, and she just runs after Azula, calling out her name.

He stands on a grave of dreams as the wedding party continues, and he watches the girl he loves run after a person who takes pleasure in hurting her.

There is no worse suffering.

[X]

"Come to bed. Don't make me sleep alone," Azula murmurs the night of the wedding, pulling Ty Lee gently to their bed.

Ty Lee lies awake and feels tears rolling down her cheeks and pooling inside of her ears or dripping onto the silk blankets. She thought it would be fun when she was young, to be the princess's girl. But it is not all she imagined.

She looks outside and pulls her pillow tightly to her chest.

There are some things that just cannot be.

[X]

The Ambassador of the Southern Water Tribe comes to the Fire Nation more often than he needs to, and Zuko notices. He wonders why, wonders what could be going on. But he does notice that there is something less forced about Ty Lee's glow when he is around, and that likely isn't the quality of the jokes.

Zuko confronts Sokka while he is in the embassy, pretending to look busy.

"You know that you can't have her, right?" is what Zuko opens with and Sokka is startled.

Sokka rubs his knuckles against his desk. "Of course I do. But that doesn't mean I don't..."

"You don't?" Zuko asks and Sokka grits his teeth.

"That I don't love her." Sokka hates admitting it, but it is true. He is in love with Ty Lee, and he is not leaving her in the cage Princess Azula wants to keep her in.

Zuko fights the urge to cringe. This is a messy situation. Maybe a messy love story.

"She would be happier with you," Zuko says, sighing. "You two would be good together. Really good together. I sometimes don't know why she stays."

"That's a question I've been asking myself for a really long time," Sokka says.

The matter of Sokka actually loving Ty Lee and not just fucking her makes what Zuko has to say next more troubling. He feels... he has to tell Sokka to end the one relationship that has ever made him truly happy, and... and he has to condemn Ty Lee to a life of abuse with no reprieve.

"I just needed to know. Tread... tread carefully. This is my family," Zuko says and Sokka does not think it is exactly his blessing.

"Why does she stay? Tell me," Sokka demands.

"I have no idea." Zuko just shrugs.

_She stays because Azula clipped her wings._

[X]

Sokka gets a message from the Fire Nation while he is in Republic City.

He expects it to be correspondence from Zuko. He unfolds the letter and finds it to be much messier handwriting than Zuko's, and he recognizes the name signed at the bottom before anything else.

_We can't see each other anymore. Azula is pregnant. _

_I can't hurt her._

The last words make Sokka want to punch everything in sight. How can Ty Lee claim not to want to hurt her when Azula is the one inflicting all of the suffering? He fights the urge to scream, and then catches his breath and closes his eyes.

Sokka decides to go to the Fire Nation. It is reckless and insane, particularly if Azula and Ty Lee are having a child. He leaves his work with the United Republic Council and catches the first ship to the Fire Nation. The entire time he tries to think of the words to say, but _words _are not Sokka. _Actions _are Sokka.

Meanwhile, Ty Lee has had her last. She walks through the woods outside of Caldera, trying to console herself and failing. Too much. Too much. There is no escape. No escape.

She intends to take the _only _escape. The only way to get away from her suffering. And maybe it will hurt everybody else, but Ty Lee is done being selfless.

Something interrupts her. Sokka. He had managed to get where Ty Lee was likely off to out of a confused Zuko, and he happens to be a very good tracker and hunter. And right now, he's hunting for a bird with clipped wings.

She opens her protuberant eyes and sees him. "What's happening?"

He must be an apparation.

"I'm here to, uh, rescue you." Sokka extends a hand to help her to her feet.

Ty Lee forgets for a moment why she was so absorbed in this forest. She was going to kill herself. That was the plan. But clearly it is not what she is intended for.

He pulls her into a kiss, the most passionate they have ever shared, even in the days they dated and slept together.

His strong arms are around her in the cold night.

"Take me some place with music and dancing," Ty Lee whispers to him.

Sokka obeys.

They wind up at some crowded bar that is too high end for Sokka's more simple tastes. But he watches her dance, the kind of dancing you do when you are trying to forget your worries. He dances with her.

"I never did give you that second dance, did I?" Ty Lee laughs, pulling him into her arms.

That night, she flies.

Sokka sees her wings for the first time. And it feels good.

**e**nd


End file.
